The Imperial Army

Abstract

The imperial army was one of the most dramatic innovations of Meiji Japan. Its system of conscription was to alter Japanese society fundamentally, while its victories over China and, later, Russia, entirely changed Japan’s international standing. However, the army was never a perfected machine and disputes over its size, organisation and function were to continue to the end of the period. In suggesting ideas, improvements and answers to ongoing problems, it benefited from a group of young officers who straddled both the ‘traditional’ and the ‘modern’, men with experience and training from the Tokugawa era (1600–1868) but also with direct observation of contemporary Western forces and societies. It was these younger officers who actually shaped the Meiji army and pre-eminent amongst their number was Katsura Tarō.